Traffic stops by Kalamazoo police down by nearly half in 6 months since racial profiling study

KALAMAZOO, MI – Traffic stops by Kalamazoo police are down nearly half in the six months following release of a racial profiling study that found black motorists are more than twice as likely as whites to be pulled over.

The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, meanwhile, this month is implementing a new policy for when officers can search drivers or their cars following traffic stops.

Public Safety officers made 3,841 traffic stops between September and January, compared to 7,298 stops from September 2012 to January 2013. Last Sept. 3, KDPS released results of a yearlong study that found that, in addition to
being stopped by Kalamazoo police more than twice as often as whites,
black motorists were
given fewer citations yet were more likely than whites to be
asked to exit their vehicles and to be searched, handcuffed and
arrested.

Chief Jeff Hadley attributes the steep drop in traffic stops since September to the study, which has prompted changes in philosophy and strategies for conducting patrols. KDPS is focusing much more on directed patrols, under which officers focus a neighborhood or
area that is experiencing high levels of crime or traffic problems.

“The traffic stop is a tool that we have in our toolbox. But is this the
best way to approach crime in our city?” Hadley said. “To go out in any
neighborhood and make an abundant number of traffic stops in an effort
to find drugs or weapons, we have rethought that idea. Is that the most
effective approach, the most efficient approach?”

Chief Jeff Hadley

Hadley said his department’s effectiveness shouldn’t be measured by the number of traffic stops it makes.

“We can go out and make a bunch of traffic stops and people see that. But that doesn’t mean we’re being efficient. It doesn’t mean it’s the right approach,” Hadley said.

Since the racial profiling study’s results came out, directed patrols have increased 40 percent, to 7,060 patrols between September and January from 5,072 for that same period a year earlier.

“That’s focusing our attention on problem areas,” Hadley said of the strategy.

This month, the department is also launching its new consent to search policy requiring officers to get supervisor approval and to give articulable reasons to seek consent to search a person or vehicle. The consulting firm that conducted the racial profiling study recommended that KDPS develop a clear policy on searches.

“For the officers, it’s giving them very clear guidelines,” Hadley said. “Still, there is nothing constitutionally that restricts an officer from asking someone, ‘Mind if I search your pockets?’”

“However, is it legitimate? Is it something we should be doing? You have to have a lot more reasons than ‘I can do it so I’m going to do it.’”

The consent to search policy is meant to avoid what Hadley called “fishing expeditions.”

“Sometimes you have young, aggressive officers trying to do good work but can go too far. We have to guide and help them,” the chief said.

Hadley said the philosophy at the agency has to change in order to regain the trust of some members of the community.

“There is a lot of collateral damage when you are too aggressive,” he said. “We are still going to be aggressive, but aggressive, targeted and intentional.”

Leaders in the black community leaders welcome changes made by KDPS
since the racial profiling study was released, but
say there is still work to be done.

Rev. Strick Strickland, pastor of Second Baptist Church, said he appreciates the steps taken by KDPS but there is a long way to go in order for officers to regain trust of Northside residents. He said he still hears from residents who feel harassed or targeted by officers.

“As long as there are people in Kalamazoo, we’ll have complaints,” Strickland said. “But I would say it’s not nearly at the rate as it once was.”

Still, he said it only takes a few incidents of harassment or racial profiling to cause problems.

“All it takes is that one officer to make the work of KDPS suffer and the relationship with the community suffer,” said Strickland, who was one of a handful of community members and KDPS officials
to attend a training session in Chicago on fair and impartial policing.

“I don’t want to serve a community that feels intimidated by its police force. And it only takes one or two officers to make it feel that way.”

Kalamazoo City Commissioner Stephanie Moore said the Department of Public Safety has made progress but has a long way to go in its outreach to community members.

Stephanie MooreMLive/Kalamazoo Gazette file

“It’s nice that they talk to pastors and preachers, but that is not enough in engaging our community,” Moore said. “They need to have real, relevant relationships with people that live in our neighborhoods, based on respect and reciprocity.”

Moore said a good start would be to put more focus on the Citizen-Public Safety Review and Appeal Board, which reviews appeals by citizens who file complaints against KDPS and are not satisfied its response. That board has been “put on the back burner” and hasn’t met in more than a year, Moore said.

Moore also would like to see more minorities among the officers policing Kalamazoo's streets.

“If you look at the makeup of KDPS, the majority of people of color have retired,” she said. “We need a real concrete recruiting plan that focuses on women and people of color to have a well-represented police force.”

Both Moore and Strickland said they are less concerned about the number of traffic stops than the way minorities are treated by police.

“We’re not looking at stops,” Strickland said. “We want to see an end to illegitimate policing and harassment, and we have seen those issues still persist.”

Moore said she wants officers to be “fair and consistent” in their policing.

“No matter what neighborhood you’re in, treat me the same as someone on Bronson Boulevard or anywhere else,” she said.

Hadley said KDPS is continuing to collect traffic stop data and will re-examine the numbers next year.

Aaron Mueller is a public safety reporter for the Kalamazoo
Gazette. Contact him at amuelle1@mlive.com or 269-568-3867.
Follow him on Twitter.